John Legend Has Farty Pants

So, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, the thingy from yesterday's Times. Need I say more? No. So I shall continue. So I give you Part Deux.

In New York, Mr. Legend, the Grammy-winning soul singer, has used his visibility to debate political opponents of charter schools in the news media. “What these people are proving who are running excellent schools is that poor black and brown kids can be successful,” he said in an interview. “Until recently a lot of Americans didn’t even believe that was true, because they saw such persistent gaps in the education outcomes.” Who believed that? No one thought I was going to amount to much in school, and I am neither black nor brown. Mr Legend, it all starts in the home and small class size. Please come see the difference between a class with 27 students and a class with 14 students. There is a major difference.

In fact Mr Legend, have you ever stepped inside an urban public school as an adult? I don't think so. Why not bring some of your high falutin' friends to a urban public school and donate all those wads of cash and time you give the charters. But what is deal with John Legend and child molester Kanye West?

Mr. Legend is on an advisory board of Harlem Village Academies, three small schools that held a glittery fund-raiser at Lincoln Center last week. Katie Couric told the crowd that she was a mentor to students on Saturday mornings. Hugh Jackman, the host, announced a $500,000 gift from Rupert Murdoch.

Oh please. Why can't public schools have this? Geez, give us a glittery bake sale and have Amber Marie Noggle from News12 Bronx there. I find it ironic, and somewhat conflicted that Rupert Murdoch has donated $500K and the Post sells out on the side of charters.

Last year, 93 percent of eighth graders at the flagship Harlem Village Academy passed the state math, English, science and social studies exams, compared with 41 percent in its West Harlem school district, records show.

What is the class size at HVA and what is the population with IEP's? First person to get me that info gets a belly rub.

The article goes on and quotes the Hoxby study, but the reporter has the good sense to counter its claims with this. But the gist is that study’s finding that 83 percent of charter schools are doing no better than local public schools shocked many advocates, all the more so because its author, Margaret E. Raymond, is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a bastion of libertarianism.
Mr. Skeeter of Williamsburg Collegiate is what advocates mean when they talk of human capital. A former public school teacher in the Bronx, where he lives, he works from 7 a.m. to 5:30, nearly three hours longer than his public school day.

No life. I take it Mr Skeeter is single.

Ninety-eight percent of some 1,000 students in grades three through eight in Uncommon Schools, almost all poor minority children, passed their New York State math exam last year, and 89 percent passed the English exam.

Again, what is passing? If passing is a 2, then it is all a scam. This is what is bugging me the most. This acceptance of passing at a 2. It should be a three.

I am just getting tired of all this celebrity and people with money getting involved in education because of some long held belief that this is their way to assuage their white liberal guilt and to have their own Angelina Jolie moments. Please John Legend and Katie Couric, please come to an inner city public school and do some good there. The kids need it. Separate but unequal sucks.